Animal activists have scored an unusually swift victory in an online campaign to stop the Zhejiang Jinhua Dog Meat Festival ăæ”æ±éćçèèăfrom happening on October 18.
This was to have been the eighth such festival and if allowed to take place, approximately ten thousand dogs would have ended up on the dinner table over a period of three days. People who have been to the festival in the past say it is a gruesome sight — dogs are kept in cages, and then butchered out on the streets when a customer comes along. The pitiful sounds of dogs yelping fills the air throughout the duration of the festival.
Campaigners have slammed the event as an unnecessary “massacre” of dogs, and argued that the dogs have not been through any health checks by regulatory bodies. They say many of the dogs were illegally culled, and some of them would still be seen wearing their identification tags just before the slaughtering.
The general public was urged to repost information from the campaigners through their blogs and microblogs, as well as to call up the press to voice their displeasure.
On Sina Weibo alone, the campaign tweet was reposted a whopping 55,000 times in less than a day. Within hours, news of the decision by the authorities in Jinhua to cancel the festival was announced by the local paper, Jinhua Daily.
Dog eating in Jinhua and the region around it goes all the way back to the Ming Dynasty. Legend has it that one general who was planning to invade Jinhua was constantly getting his troops barked away by dogs in the city. It wasn’t until they killed all the dogs that the army managed to conquer the city. To celebrate the success, they feasted over dog meat for days
Dog meat is also a popular delicacy in South Korea. Activists in Seoul scored a similar victory in June this year with the cancellation of a dog meat festival organised by the Korea Dog Farmers’ Association, which represents some 600 dog farms all across South Korea.
Sunday, May 20, 2018
Animal activists shut down the Jinhua Dog Meat Festival
Comments 26
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Great to learn about that. Please put a graphical warning first. I didn't need to see that just after my dinner.
Yeah, I agree — really great story, but that was a pretty drastic image to lead with.
Wow….. that was way too graphic of an image to pop up on my computer screen……
Well, we can finally answer the question, “Who let the dogs out?”
I went there 6 years ago, was delicious, just wish they did the preparation in the back đ
You are hypocrites all. This is no different than ducks or pigs hanging in windows. Hypocrites!
It's about time and finally. It is not the 1300's anymore, time to be living in reality and realize dogs AND cats are companions not food!!!
I like them as food too.
Dogs aren't bred for mass consumption, unlike the other two animals you mentioned above.
Dog and cats have become human companions over the centuries. ć«ćæć… Would you also eat your friends?
I'm sure many of these dogs had owners and were just stolen off the street.
You don't wanna know where they source their ingredients from. Stray/homeless dogs is an enormous issue in China. Since they're doing their bits in getting the dangerous creatures off the streets and accordingly keeping the menaces at bay from the public, I respect their choices of diet. Horses are human companions, too. They are long accepted in the (in)famous French cuisine. The Aussies eat kangaroos, despite them being home reared pets and an important transport option in outback Down Under.
There is always an stupid person (or two) who always write comments in favor of animal cruelty every time that an article on this matter is posted … poor uncivilised people, I feel sorry for your small brain and your total lack of respect for life. I hope you are re-born as dogs … I wonder if you will enjoy this festival then … >:o) Good luck bitches!
Is that supposed to be funny???
Are you not a man of Baha?
The operative phrase here is “hanging in windows”.
'Roos are pets? They can grow to be as tall as a man and can knock you down with a kick.
'Roos are “an important transport option”? The 'Roo express? “I hate to spat the dummy, but my 4:02 'Roo is delayed!”
'Roos are both pest and mascot, but methinks most people wouldn't keep one as a pet as much as they'd eat one.
Funny how people sort one animal into 'pet' and some into 'food', as though the latter erases all need for a sense of responsibility or guilt. Domestication doesn't increase pain or fear, nor does pain or fear decrease if experienced by a non 'pet' animal. Whether it's a pig or a dog strung up by wire or with an apple shoved
into their dead mouth, both are equal in suffering.
Ha. This is what I mean – both refreshing and funny. Seriously, the Shanghaiist comments section used to be Rushour1 arguing with and against his other various aliases, with a randon comment thrown in by the odd moron.
I thank thee Terroir for brightening up my angst-ridden comment surfing.
why is it so important to import western value in China. This is part of the tradition and culture. How about if India decide to force everyone to think eating cow the same way you think about eating dog. See if you think it's fair. People are pathetic. The previous author is correct to say that you people are hypocrites.
idiot warboy, you are a double standard baster who like to infrinige in other people's culture and tradition, if u go to any slaughterhouse, there is a lot of animal cruelty as well. Who speak for them. Common sense is a discrimination against minor. Let me know when you give up eating altogether before you speak up again.
For you is “culture and tradition” the massacre of all these dogs?
Wow … very interesting concept of “culture” you have.
Let me tell you … even in a slaughterhouse you could try give animals a less painful death if you wanted to.
What Chinese do during this “dog meat festival” is pure 100% barbaric and a major massacre … so you shut up until you learn the difference between “culture” and “stupidity”.
not only are u ignorant .. you are also discriminating against other culture and tradition. Take for instant .. do u think bull fighting is any more hamane. Culture is a very strange thing but people must have some respects for others and not everyone will have the same value you have. You only have the stomach to ur own society's misbehaving and think everything out of ur sphere is barbaric. When will you have any respect of other's people values and beliefs. You can go visit slaughter .. it's too a massacre with no less pain and suffering. I'm a vegaterian. You should eat shit and maybe you have right to speak against others. Until then crawl back to you little pie hole!
Ok, I got it! You are one of those vegetarians that feel superior to anybody else (you loves veggies, but you agree on having dog meat festival too!). Let me tell you dear … you are nothing, and it is very clear that you have never been in the West. In developed countries there are very important efforts towards humane and ethical treatment of animals … even in slaughterhouses!Tell me: is there any such effort here in “Super China”???Does you, your people or your government does anything about it???The answer is no .. only a few kindhearted people (Chinese and foreign) try to help animals in this country, but most people beleive that is ok to follow this “barbaric” traditions because it is their “culture” … such as spitting, chewing with the mouth open, passing gas anywhere anytime, spitting food, peeing and pooing in the street, going outside dressing just in pajamas, treating migrant workers as trash, etc … you have such an “awesome” culture … you should be proud indeed!!!>:o) Shut up man … you cannot pretend that Chinese culture is 100% stupidity and cruelty proof … besides, have you seen the international campaigns against animal cruelty (such as bullfighting)??? I guess no because you have no clue about anything. Check the websites of ASPCA, Peta and others … then talk!Or even better … check the website of Jaiya's Animal Rescue to see all the examples of animal abandonment and neglect in the city of Shanghai:http://jarshanghai.wordpress.c… P.S. You go and eat shit … and learn some manners too!
whatever hateboy .. i won't spend another second for you intolerant, tunnel vision hate boy. Enjoy ur day.
Dude … you give up so fast! Well … that happens when you do not have any good argument to fight back!
Go home loser!
OK enough of the flame wars already! Let's stop getting defensive and look at the facts. All animal killing is senseless, cruel and unnecessary; despite outdated 'science' we don't need meat – our saliva, teeth, jaws and guts more closely resemble herbivores than carnivores or omnivores. Each country has its taboos regarding which animals it's OK to eat and not. None of them are particularly logical. As a species, we justify our barbarity to the silent ones on this planet – our fellow Earthlings – with 'custom' and 'I wanna so I'm gonna' reasonings. It's time that the human race starts to show respect to the eco-system and all who live in it instead of treating the planet like a giant McDonalds – we are like a bunch of greedy toddlers rampaging around the world. Me, I campaign against dog killing and ALL animal killing – that's why I'm a vegan. I eat delicious and kind food and try to avoid doing harm wherever I can. But it's a journey of awareness – we all have to start somewhere and I was in my late 40s before I 'got' it – I'm no saint. Some people go veggie or vegan when they see pictures like those poor dogs – they join the dots by realising that not just dogs but pigs, cows, chickens, sheep, roos et al want to live but are killed just for human pleasure and selfishness. And meat and dairy production not only rob the poor of staple foods but wreck the planet too. So don't knock people's instinctive revulsion to cruelty by calling it 'hypocrisy' – this awakening is the best bit of the human heart and something that should be cultivated. Why be cruel when you can be kind?
My biggest issue is the continued lack of respect shown to the anmials who give up thier lives for us. I was farm raised and if I treated our animals like that I would have to answer for it. The lack of care and respect for the dogs is no different than the sharks with no fins at the botttom of the ocean.I am ok with people eating what they want just respect those creatures whom you are taking as food. The native North American Indians prayed to the spirits of the animals they killed for food. Part of me wishes that was a tradition that we all follow. I will say on the whole conversation one thing: Just becuase it is tradtion doesn't make it right. Many terrible things have been done and are still occurring to animals and human alike in the name of tradition or culture. Sadly mostly to women and animals by men.